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<div class="title">libfuse API documentation </div>  </div>
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<div class="textblock"><p>FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) is an interface for userspace programs to export a filesystem to the Linux kernel. The FUSE project consists of two components: the <em>fuse</em> kernel module (maintained in the regular kernel repositories) and the <em>libfuse</em> userspace library. libfuse provides the reference implementation for communicating with the FUSE kernel module.</p>
<p>A FUSE file system is typically implemented as a standalone application that links with libfuse. libfuse provides functions to mount the file system, unmount it, read requests from the kernel, and send responses back.</p>
<h2>Getting started</h2>
<p>libfuse offers two APIs: a "high-level", synchronous API, and a "low-level" asynchronous API. In both cases, incoming requests from the kernel are passed to the main program using callbacks. When using the high-level API, the callbacks may work with file names and paths instead of inodes, and processing of a request finishes when the callback function returns. When using the low-level API, the callbacks must work with inodes and responses must be sent explicitly using a separate set of API functions.</p>
<p>The high-level API that is primarily specified in <a class="el" href="fuse_8h.html">fuse.h</a>. The low-level API that is primarily documented in <a class="el" href="fuse__lowlevel_8h.html">fuse_lowlevel.h</a>.</p>
<h2>Examples</h2>
<p>FUSE comes with several examples in the <a href="files.html">examples</a> directory. A good starting point are <a class="el" href="hello_8c.html">hello.c</a> (for the high-level API) and <a class="el" href="hello__ll_8c.html">hello_ll.c</a> (for the low-level API).</p>
<h2>FUSE internals</h2>
<p>The authoritative source of information about libfuse internals (including the protocol used for communication with the FUSE kernel module) is the source code.</p>
<p>However, some people have kindly documented different aspects of FUSE in a more beginner friendly way. While this information is increasingly out of date, it still provides a good overview:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bharat Vangoor et al have included an overview of the FUSE internals in a <a href="fast17-vangoor.pdf">paper evaluating FUSE performance</a>.</li>
<li>Some documentation of the kernel-userspace protocol is available on the <a href="https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/wiki/">libfuse wiki</a>. </li>
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